Celebrity Homes

Villa Astor

In the spring of 1905, the richest man in the world, William Waldorf Astor, bought a villa high on a promontory overlooking the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius. Astor named it Villa Sirena, after the mythical siren who bewitched sailors in the nearby waters. Astor himself had been bewitched by Italy and described the villa’s location in Sorrento as “near paradise as anything I expect to see”.

The villa was built in the late 19th century, on the site of the Roman palace of Agrippa Postumus. Astor had studied art and sculpture in Rome as a young man and was so passionate about classical Italian architecture and ancient history that he filled his homes in England – Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, Two Temple Place in London and Hever Castle in Kent – with marble reliefs, colonades, Roman antiquities and Rennaisance art. Experts were dispatched all over Italy to source valuable statues, mosaics, stoneware, ironwork and sarcophagi for Villa Sirena, which Astor renamed Villa Astor, and its garden.

A new book, Villa Astor: Paradise Restored on the Amalfi Coast, charts the history of the villa under Astor, as well as the most recent renovation by the renowned French interior designer Jacques Garcia. For those who want to holiday in classical luxury, the villa is available to rent (from £12,000 per night) and comes with six en-suite bedrooms, a seven-acre garden, a swimming pool, a gym, a private beach and even a secret grotto created in the caves underneath the villa which lead directly to the sea.

Spread over seven acres of olive and orange groves, the garden is “one of the country’s best-kept secrets,” says Astor’s great-grandson the Rt Hon the Lord Astor of Hever. Astor filled it with hundreds of species of plants, where winding paths give sudden views to the sea below. Marble fragments, statues and urns were placed at intervals to lend it “poetic pathos” and the sculptures were interwoven among palm trees, wisteria, mimosa, eucalyptus and fig.

After Astor died in 1919, the villa changed hands several times. In the 1970s, the house was owned by the wealthy shipping family Mariano and Rita Pane. The couple had asked the well-known Italian architect Gaetano Pesce to remodel the villa, but his radical plans included razing the original villa completely in favour of building something modern. In the end the couple employed American architect Rosy Gargiulo, whose piece de resistance was a 1,000sq ft kitchen. In the book, Rita Pane writes that “the house had an enchanted atmosphere and my passion was the luxuriant garden with its paths, where I would walk inebriated by the scent of lemons”.

While the Panes lived there, the house hosted famous visitors: Franco Zeffirelli, Gregory Peck, Sofia Loren and Rudolf Nureyev among them. Princess Margaret is described by Rita as being “a very timid woman who lit up with youthful spirit when she cast her gaze upon the splendour of the Amalfi Coast”.

In 2012, the villa was sold to a new owner (Italian newspaper reports say it was purchased by a 22-year-old Russian woman from Moscow for €32m). Jacques Garcia, responsible for renovating some of the world’s most opulent period homes and hotels, as well as the Palace of Versailles, was asked to remodel the villa. Garcia used his understanding of historical restorations to put Astor’s collection of art and antiquities centre stage: there are fully restored period paintings, antique furniture, marble columns, marble and parquet floors, stucco walls and high ceilings. Part of Astor’s extensive collection was brought indoors to protect it and is displayed to particularly dramatic effect in the hallway and reception rooms, where marble columns from the original Roman villa of Agrippa Postumus stand like sentries.

Garcia is known for his dramatic colour palette. Downstairs, Astor’s ancient urns, displayed in a glass cabinet in the study that looks onto the garden, are set against black and gold lacquered woodwork. Upstairs, bedrooms have rich fabrics, frescoes and show-stopping views while the bathrooms are covered in precious marble and granite. In the master-bedroom, red walls are decorated with frescoes, there is a crimson chaise lounge designed by Garcia, translucent drapes by Verel de Belval and vases by Meissen.

In the book, Astor’s great-grandson writes that the villa was, in many ways, “a reflection of his personality: a sensual and harmonious feast of contrasts and a coexistence of light and shade”. Astor, a complicated and private man who had left his native America because he felt persecuted by the press, found solace in his villa in Sorrento, high on a clifftop with his garden and sea views for company.

Villa Astor: Paradise Restored on the Amalfi Coast (Flammarion), with photographs by Eric Sander, is out now